Low Temperature Synthesis of α-Fe2O3 Nano-rods Using Simple Chemical Route

Iron oxide (Fe2O3) is widely used as a catalyst, pigment and gas sensitive material.  In this article, α-Fe2O3 nano-rods were first synthesized via a simple chemical method using iron(III) nitrate 9- hydrate (Fe(NO3)3.9H2O) as precursor. XRD pattern showed that the iron oxide nanoparticles exhibited alpha-Fe2O3 (hematite) structure in nanocrystals. The single-phase α- Fe2O3 nano-rods were prepared when the samples calcined at 500 °C. The smallest particle size was found to be 18 nm in diameter. The SEM studies depicted rod-like shaped particles with formation of clusters by increasing annealing temperature. The sharp peaks in FTIR spectrum determined the purity of Fe2O3 nanoparticles and absorbance peak of UV-Vis spectrum showed the small bandgap energy of 2.77 ev. The VSM result showed a coercive field and saturation magnetism around 90 G and 9.95 emu/g, respectively.